Critters from Critters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critters_(franchise)#The_Critters)
Eat or Fuck: Critters
Eat
Fuck
Voting ended onOct 11, 2025
[A] group of malevolent carnivorous extraterrestrials called Krites (better known as Critters, the term the franchise is associated with) that have the power to roll into balls similar to hedgehogs and form into a giant sphere that can roll across a landscape. The individual Krites resemble small animals that are furry and spiky with large mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth. Throughout the franchise, they eat anything in sight, including human beings. The spikes on their backs can be launched as projectiles that render the victim unconscious. Krites come in black, brown, and navy blue. In the first film, they were also able to grow to a much larger size, but this ability was dropped in later installments.
Summary: Akaashi isn’t sure why but he wants to spend more time with Sasaki. He’s struggling to figure out his feelings and doesn’t want to push Sasaki’s boundaries.
Genre: romance, angst, humor if you squint and think I'm funny
Warnings: cursing, incompetent author who literally does not know how to update regularly, cringe anxious teens, broken caps lock key
Word Count: 1.8k
Check out the series playlist here!
I fucked up.
I watched her walk away from me.
I fucked up.
The train was shaking me, but I couldn’t feel it.
I fucked up.
I hung my bag on a hook next to my desk.
Why couldn’t you just tell her that you wanted her around?
I dried my hair with my towel, staring back at the boy in the mirror.
Why do you even want her around?
I sunk into my bed, wrapping myself in the covers.
Tomorrow came too soon. Before I knew what was happening, I was unlocking the club room and getting all the equipment ready in the gym.
Focus, Keiji. You’ve got to get this team to the Spring Tournament again.
I began warming up as the rest of the team trickled in. I set the volleyball off the wall, and it came back perfectly to my hands.
This isn’t enough.
I started going faster, running back and forth, bouncing the ball of the wall from different angles.
Just hit that same spot.
I kept going, sweat dripping down the side of my face. The cold air of the morning pricked my skin.
Just--
I slipped. My shoes screeched against the gym floor, stopping my feet as my body flung too far to the left. I landed on the hard ground, a sharp pain in my ankle.
I fucked up.
“Akaashi-san,” Onaga called out, rushing to my side. “Are you alright?”
I rolled over onto my back, sprawling out on the floor. “I’m sure I’ll be okay,” I reassured him.
I’m definitely not okay.
I accepted his help up, and my knees almost automatically buckled. Pain flared up in my ankle.
Well, shit.
“Yeah, you’re going home.”
Onaga called Yuka and Coach Yamiji over to help me to my feet. He explained the situation to them, and Coach gave me a pointed look before telling Yuka to wrap my ankle and lock me out of the gym.
“You’re not going to actually lock me out of the gym, are you?” I asked Yuka.
She slid the door shut with a slam.
So much for being her favorite senpai.
I started on my way home.
Where did I go wrong?
I grabbed a bag of ice on my way to my room.
I’ve never been kicked out of practice like that before.
I set the ice bag against the part of my foot that hurt the most and sat down at my desk. I started to do some work written on my to-do list, but I kept glancing at my phone. I wasn’t sure why, but I kept checking to see if Sasaki had messaged me.
Yu-chan must have told her about my injury. She had to have given Sasaki my number for managerial reasons.
I picked up my phone and started looking through my social media apps for any missed notifications.
Why do I want her to message me so badly?
I opened the video calling app on my phone and called the first person on my recents list. Really, he was the only person on my recents list.
Maybe I just want attention right now.
“AGAASHE!” Bokuto’s hair filled up most of the screen. His eyebrows filled the rest. “How are you? You never call this early in the day.”
Do I want his advice or do I just want to catch up with him like normal?
“I finished my homework early, so I thought I would call you, Bokuto-san,” I replied, rubbing the nape of my neck. “How have you been?”
“I’m doing GREAT!”
I turned down the volume.
“I took Coach’s advice and stopped practicing on our days off!” he bragged. “I’ve been spending so much time just WALKING AROUND! THERE’S SO MANY FOOD STALLS HERE!!! I’LL JUST STOP ON MY WALK AND PICK UP SOMETHING TO EAT AND BE ON MY WAY!!!”
I smiled. “That’s good for you, Bokuto-san,” I said. “You always seemed a little more tense during those week-long training camps. Training nonstop didn’t do you well.”
“BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, AGAASH!!!” he exclaimed. “THE FOOD HERE IS SO GOOOOD!!!!!!”
“I’m sure it is, Bokuto-san.”
He continued talking about how much he was enjoying Osaka. Bokuto rambled on and on about the food. He had been upset that he wasn’t on the official roster for the team at first, but he was in the pool for the team to pick players from.
“It’s actually a lot nicer than I thought it would be, Akaash!” he shouted. “I’m getting to play a lot of games without feeling the pressure weigh down on me.
“I mean sure, I have to be good enough for them to put me on their team, but everyone here is good. Not that the guys at Fukurodani aren’t good. These guys are just so good. I don’t feel like I’m being pushed into a corner though. They’re pushing for me to be better in a good way.”
I nodded along. He gave me the opportunity for me to talk about what universities I was applying to. As always, he tried to convince me to go to a school with a good volleyball team so i could play.
“Hey, why are you upset?”
I blinked rapidly, his question washing over me like cold water.
How did he know?
“I’m not upset, Bokuto-san,” I responded, trying to slow my breathing.
My heart was beating faster as my mind scrambled for something, anything, to say to shake Bokuto’s interrogation.
When was he able to read me this well?
“How was your game with Nekoma yesterday?” Bokuto asked instead. He was narrowing down on everything that could have gone wrong in the last 24 hours.
I nodded my head, looking at the stack of books on my desk. “It went well,” I said. “We lost, but only barely. They have a pretty solid team while we’re still trying to get the first-years working in sync.”
Bokuto scratched his head. “Didn’t you say there was a really good first-year hitter?”
“Mamoru-kun.”
“Mamoru-kun! How is he doing?” Bokuto asked, light flashing in his eyes. “Is he giving you as much trouble as I gave you?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Bokuto-san, you weren’t as troublesome as you thought you were,” I reassured him. “But, uh, Mamoru-kun is shaping up very well. Anahori-kun actually got to play quite a bit in the last set of the game as well.”
His eyes narrowed and a wide grin graced his face.
Ah, so he’s caught on.
“I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG!” he shouted. “What’s got you so wound up?”
“You seem awfully happy that I’m upset, Bokuto-san.”
“AGAASHEE!!!”
I sighed. “So there’s this,” I hesitated, “person that I’ve gotten close with. I asked them to help Yuka-chan with her manager duties--”
“Haha! You said duties!”
“--but yesterday they quit out of nowhere,” I finished, ignoring Bokuto’s comment. “I don’t know if it was something that I did wrong, or if the team was actually stressing them out.”
My mind flashed back to Onaga’s arm around Sasaki’s shoulders. I felt my blood boil thinking about how uncomfortable she looked.
Bokuto scratched his chin. “What does this have to do with you losing to Nekoma?” he asked. Didn’t you guys just play them last weekend at the training camp?”
“I think I just got nervous with them watching,” I admitted, not realizing that it was the truth until I said it. “It’s the first game that they’ve watched, and I really wanted to impress them.”
“Oh?”
I sighed. The storm that had been brewing in my mind for the past couple days was finally settling down into a soft drizzle.
“They’ve been really distant from me, but I can see the intelligence behind their eyes. I want to spend hours talking to them about literature and school. I want to ask them a million questions about how they think the universe works.”
Bokuto laughed heartily at me.
“Why are you calling me then?”
“Wha--”
“Bye Akaashi!” he shouted. “I think you know what to do!!!”
He hung up on me. I couldn’t believe he just hung up on me. My own face looked back at me in shock.
Bokuto’s voice echoed through my room, through my mind. The phrase repeated itself over and over again.
I know what to do.
I messaged Yuka-chan.
“Took you long enough,” she sent back before sending me what I asked for.
I didn’t ask her what she meant by that.
How did Yuka-chan and Bokuto-san catch onto my feelings before I did? I’m still not even sure just how I feel.
“Hi, it’s Akaashi Keiji,” I typed out.
The blinking cursor mocked me. My thumb rapidly deleted the message and tapped out a new one.
“Hey, it’s Akaashi.”
I sent the message, my stomach uneasy with nerves.
“Can I call you tonight?”
The bubble indicating that Sasaki was typing popped up almost immediately. I felt like I was going to throw up.
Throwing my phone on my desk, I wrung my hands.
My phone buzzed, and I scrambled to pick it up. I couldn’t have her thinking I left her on read.
“I’m about to shower, but you can call me in an hour.”
I sighed in relief.
She doesn’t think I’m weird.
My phone vibrated again. “Are you alright? Did you need something?” she asked.
“I’ll call you at 19:30,” I texted back.
I’ll just explain to her what I need when i call her. Perfect. I get to talk to her.
Why do I want to talk to her?
I spent most of the next hour killing time. I cleaned my room, though it didn’t need much cleaning. I walked to the kitchen and stared at the contents of my fridge. I sat on my bed, staring at my closet in contemplation before deciding that I didn’t need to change my shirt.
By 19:28 I was lying on the ground, staring at the clock on my phone.
Should I call her exactly at 19:30? What if she thinks that’s creepy? Should I call her a little bit sooner? What if she’s busy and misses the call? Should I call her a little bit later? What if she thinks I forgot to call?
I groaned in frustration, slamming my thumb down on the screen. I quickly put my phone on speaker and laid it down next to my head.
With each ring, the pounding in my chest felt louder. My stomach felt like it was trying to dig its way into the ground.
Why is this so nerve-wracking?
“Hello?” a voice called out from the speaker on my phone. “Akaashi-san?”
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Hi, Sasaki-chan,” I replied.
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a/n: Most of this playlist/fic will be Dayglow songs. I love his music so much and they just vibe.
fun facts:
**I 100% made up Bokuto’s situation (I don’t know how pro sports works in Japan)
**Bokuto is Akaashi’s BEST FRIEND!!! just because he’s loud doesn’t mean he isn’t emotionally intelligent and knows what Akaashi needs!!!!
Fun Fact: Although promoted as New Line’s answer to Gremlins (1984), the screenplay of Critters had been written and bought before Gremlins was announced. The director Stephen Herek had based the screenplay on a nightmare he experienced as a child long before Gremlins was even conceived.
Artists often speak of pieces that just take over their brains and they can't do anything until they make those and get them out of their head. Well this piece was one of those for me. I just felt the undying need to create a Critter ball out of resin and fur. For no reason other than to see if I could do it.
